Swine fever and wheat feed threaten demand for soybean meal in China

China's wheat feed for pigs and poultry has reduced demand for alternative feeds and changed the market outlook for soybean meal and other essential ingredients used by the country's huge feed industry, analysts and traders said. Chinese feed producers have dramatically increased wheat purchases in recent months to replace corn, which rose by more than a third last year to a rare wheat premium after a drop in corn production and state stocks last season . Increased use of wheat in feed, which has more protein than corn, also reduced demand for soybean meal, the main source of protein in livestock feed, raising questions about China's appetite for soybeans, while American farmers prepare to commit more than 87 million acres to the crop. "Demand for soybean meal in general is very bad. It is recovering, but very slowly," said Zou Honglin, an analyst at trade site Myagric.com. "One reason is African swine fever, the other key factor is the large-scale replacement of wheat by corn in ...